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Synthetic Nucleic Acid Capable of Post-Polymerization Functionalization and Evolution:
No full textThesis advisor: Jia NiuThesis advisor: Abhishek ChatterjeeThe functions of natural nucleic acids such as DNA and RNA have transcended from serving as the primary information carrier in cells and have emerged as a new class of functional material with applications encompassing medicine, diagnosis, and research tools. While the vulnerability of natural nucleic acids to nuclease degradation as well as the lack of chemical functionality have imposed a significant constraint on their ever-expanding applications, scientists have put in the effort to develop new classes of synthetic nucleic acids (XNAs) to overcome current limitations. In this dissertation, we will describe the development of a novel XNA oligonucleotide structure, the “click handle-modified FANA” (cmFANA), as the next-generation nucleic acid-based biopolymer that is capable of post-polymerization functionalization and evolution. In this dissertation, we divide our graduate research into three chapters: the development of the essential building block for cmFANA and the synthesis of cmFANA oligonucleotide as Chapter 1; the evolution and application of cmFANA as a sugar-presenting affinity reagent that targets disease-related Carbohydrate-Binding Proteins (CBPs) as Chapter 2; and other collaboration projects as Chapter 3. Together, we described a highly potential XNA structure that goes beyond established impressions of nucleic acids and carries the ability to be a versatile platform technology.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Chemistry
The Fragile Self: Heteronomy in Foucault and Augustine
Get PDFThesis advisor: Dominic F. DoyleThesis advisor: Brian RobinetteThesis (STL) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry.Discipline: Sacred Theology
Assembly Theology and Sacramentality in Jesuit Schools
Get PDFThesis advisor: John BaldovinThesis advisor: Thomas M. GroomeThis thesis proposes a connection between the theology of the assembly and the education offered by the Society of Jesus in its schools. For young people, the school should be a place where they learn that life in community is the fullest form of life. Sacramentality is a constitutive dimension of the Church and the Christian faith, and inspires us to live our faith in all situations and circumstances. As a result, liturgy has a significant impact on the formation and transformation of the Christian community. It is essential that the liturgy is adequate to allow members to express their faith in God and experience God's life through the love they receive for the world. Although not all students in Jesuit schools are Catholic, the Jesuit school is an assembly where all members must develop a sacramental look at reality. Liturgy can be a link between all these elements, for when it is "sacramenally adequate," it is a source of nourishment and continual conversation for the faith life of a Christian community. In summary, this thesis argues that assembly theology and Jesuit education must go together to form a sacramentally adequate Christian community where the liturgy is a source of ongoing transformation and conversion.Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry.Discipline: Sacred Theology
The Spirit and Flesh in Romans 8 Interpreted in the Light of the Relationship with God for People Recovering from Childhood Trauma
Get PDFThesis advisor: Matthew MonnigThesis (STL) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry.Discipline: Sacred Theology
From Macro to Meso: A Multi-Level Analysis of the Effect of National Context on Corporate Emissions, 2010-2020
Get PDFThesis advisor: Andrew JorgensonAccording to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), over 25% of the global greenhouse gas emissions in 2021 are attributed to 9,000 corporations. Clearly, corporations contribute disproportionately to the climate crisis, but the factors influencing these emissions have been understudied. In this dissertation, I examine the relationship between the “macro-level” of the nation-state and the “meso-level” of the corporation to identify national characteristics that impact corporate carbon emissions. I draw from several macro-sociological theories: first, the Varieties of Capitalism theory proposes that corporate outcomes depend on the form and extent of national government and corporate coordination. Second, I draw from World Society and World-Systems theories, which propose that national emissions are dependent on integration into global civil society and position in the global political-economic hierarchy, respectively. By testing how well these theories explain variation in corporate emissions, this dissertation extends our understanding of the macro-level factors influencing corporate environmental outcomes, especially those contributing to the climate crisis.The first series of analyses focuses on national characteristics and institutions. The Varieties of Capitalism theory suggests that Coordinated Market Economies (CMEs), where the government has greater control over and connections to corporations, will be more successful in mitigating emissions. To test this hypothesis, I estimate a multilevel model using a decade of longitudinal corporate emissions data from the CDP. I find that overall, corporations in CMEs have lower emissions than corporations in non-CMEs—especially those in critical industries such as fossil fuels, infrastructure, materials, and apparel. However, CMEs are not successful across the board. Large corporations in CMEs have higher emissions than similarly sized corporations in non-CMEs, suggesting that tight coupling between powerful corporations and the state contributes to increasing emissions.
Recognizing the limitations of governments’ ability to control corporations, the second series of analyses focuses on non-state actors and the intersection of civil society and economic hierarchy. When taken together, World Society and World-Systems theories suggest that nations highly integrated into international civil society will be most successful in mitigating emissions, but that the economic position of those nations can temper or strengthen the association. To test this hypothesis, I estimate a multi-level model and include three measures of civil society integration. I find that the relationship between civil society pressure and corporate emissions varies by a nation’s position in the world-system. Non-core nations experience increased emissions according to two measures, while core nations experience decreased emissions according to one measure. I argue that reducing corporate emissions requires accounting for increasingly complicated macro-sociological contexts, as corporations are pressured by and incorporated into the world society and constrained by the world-system's structure.
Overall, this dissertation examines which nation-level conditions mitigate corporate emissions and which exacerbate them. My results suggest that while civil society pressure and close coordination between corporations and governments are associated with decreased emissions in some contexts, emissions increase when corporations are powerful and nations are weak. I build upon the World Society, World-Systems, and Varieties of Capitalism theories to show that these macro-level contexts matter for corporate environmental outcomes.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Sociology
Making Space to “Be Ourselves”: Brazilian Immigrant Children as Two-Way Immersion Program Implementers and Transborder Thinkers
Get PDFThesis advisor: Jon WargoThis research study investigates how young Brazilian immigrant students (ages 5-9) experience their education in a Two-Way Immersion (TWI) program (Portuguese-English) at one elementary school in the U.S. Northeast. TWI is a bilingual education model that has become popular in recent years but has also come under scrutiny with growing concerns for equity. This multi-year ethnographic study examined students’ roles as thinkers and knowers who contribute to the social world of schooling in a bilingual program that was originally envisioned to serve their needs. Data sources are: participant observations in classrooms and schoolwide and program-specific meetings; interviews with school staff members, children, and caregivers; and a collection of in-class assignments.Findings from this study point to the paradoxical relationship that the focal school had with young immigrant children. First, children of Brazilian descent contributed to the successful implementation and survival of the new bilingual strand in their school through daily language practices and by leveraging their lived experiences and memories during instruction. Second, Brazilian immigrant students carved out spaces in their TWI classrooms to deploy and co-construct subalternized knowledges based on their transborder experiences. At the same time, they faced conflicting orientations concerning their role and participation in the TWI program as well as dynamics of in/visibility. Third, following these students at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, during fully remote learning, revealed how the children negotiated compounded constraints. I show how young students humanized their virtual TWI classrooms, made space for playfulness, and centered their care-full lives in their formal schooling during remote learning.
Investigating the educational realities of Brazilians, a rapidly growing but understudied segment of the U.S. Latinx population, not only sheds light on unique facets of their experience, but also generates insights as to how to (re)think educational models, programs, and responses to minoritized populations in the U.S. Precisely, together, the findings advocate for a holistic focus on childhoods, as opposed to the current emphasis on language-as-subject, in TWI education.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction
From a Duty to a Right: The Political Development of the Second Amendment
Get PDFThesis advisor: Marc LandyThis dissertation addresses the question of how the issue of gun rights is debated and resolved in American politics. While the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) has often been described as a distinct political win for gun rights advocates, it left open crucial political and regulatory questions that remain unsettled, including the constitutional permissibility of gun control measures and the proper balance between state and federal authority in establishing those parameters. This dissertation provides an account of the Second Amendment’s political development and its interpretation as a civic, state, collective, and individual right, and how shifts in interpreting the right to keep and bear arms have changed the way competing claims of gun rights and gun control are reconciled through the political process. Doing so aligns the Second Amendment with other major changes in American politics – outside of the courts – including the growing role of the federal government, the increase in polarization and the importance of cultural issues to partisan politics, and the rise of the gun rights movement as a pivotal political force. Using the lens of American political development, this dissertation is structured to identify critical junctures over time when changing interpretations of the Second Amendment transformed the politics of gun control, which include policy changes, partisan realignment, and broader patterns of federalism. Detailed historical and legal research of primary sources was conducted, including analysis of newspapers, journals, correspondence, as well as early state constitutions, records from the Constitutional Convention, briefs from state legislatures regarding gun regulation, and relevant court cases. Based on this research, the evidence is sufficiently compelling to support the collectivist reading of the Second Amendment rather than the individual rights interpretation. In other words, the Second Amendment was intended to protect the states from federal encroachment by guaranteeing their right to arm their militias – not to grant an individual right – a position that was subsequently maintained by the courts until District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) overturned decades of precedent, further complicating the already contentious issue of gun rights in American politics.
Chapter One focuses on the historical and intellectual origins of the right to bear arms that influenced early state constitutions and gun regulations. Chapters Two through Four discuss the nature of arms-bearing during the Revolutionary era; the debates surrounding the drafting and ratification of the Second Amendment; and the crucial role of the state militia system to early notions of republican government. Subsequent chapters provide an account of the changing nature of the state militia system, ultimately resulting in the formation of the National Guard; early legal interpretations of the right to bear arms, including whether the Second Amendment applied to the states; and a comprehensive account of federal gun legislation. From there, Chapter Seven discusses the development of collective rights theory and the Supreme Court’s traditional position on the Second Amendment. Chapters Eight and Nine turn to the rise of the gun rights movement; the establishment of the National Rifle Organization as an influential political actor and how the Second Amendment was politicized to advance its cause; changes to federal gun legislation; and the development of individual rights theory and its influence on the partisan debate about gun control, including a literature review to account for the “New Standard Model” of Second Amendment scholarship. Chapter Ten analyzes the milestone decisions District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) and McDonald v. Chicago (2010) and also provides a detailed account of the process of incorporating the Second Amendment against the states, arguing that even though the Supreme Court established the individual right to keep and bear arms, its traditional interpretation as a states’ right must be maintained in the interest of federalism. The Conclusion further advances this assertation, contending that the intense debate about gun rights in American politics could be tempered by allowing the states greater latitude to regulate both gun control and gun rights. Under a federalized system of well-regulated liberty that emphasizes state autonomy, the states would be free to either limit or expand the right to keep and bear arms based on the demands of their constituents, which balances the politics of gun control with the constitutional protections of the Second Amendment.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Political Science
Essays in Applied Microeconomics:
No full textThesis advisor: Arthur LewbelThis thesis consists of two chapters. In Chapter 1, I studied the consumption inequalities between men and women, as well as boys and girls, within the households in Sierra Leone. Through a collective household model, I found that women on average experience lower levels of consumption than men, with the inequality concentrated in households that are large or consist of more women than men. Moreover, there is little evidence of overall consumption inequality by gender for children, while both boys and girls have very high poverty rates. In addition, I developed a new strategy for understanding who is perceived as a child vs. an adult in a household, which improved the estimation. In Chapter 2, I studied the associations between sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) taxes and adolescent obesity in the US. I found that the taxes were associated with a lower body mass index and a lower probability of being overweight or obese. I found that SSBs and milk consumption had mediating roles, as tax increases were associated with decreases in SSB consumption and increases in milk consumption. Given the limited implementation and recent preemption of SSB taxes across the US, these results would help in understanding the potential benefits of implementing SSB taxes on a larger scale.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Economics
A Love-Hate Relationship: The Legalization of Same-Sex Marriage and the Number of Reported Anti-LGBT+ Hate Crimes in the United States
Get PDFThesis advisor: Geoffrey SanzenbacherOddly, as acceptance of LGBT+ individuals continues to rise in the United States, the number of reported anti-LGBT+ hate crimes also rises (McCarthy 2022, Author’s calculations from Uniform Crime Reporting data). Could this be the result of a violent backlash against the legalization of same-sex marriage? This paper investigates this love-hate relationship using data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics’s Uniform Crime Reporting system. Utilizing a collection of difference-in- differences regressions, this analysis compares the number of reported anti-LGBT+ hate crimes in a state before and after that state’s legalization of same sex marriage. The results suggest that states have a higher number of reported hate crimes per month after their legalization of same-sex marriage when controlling for population. A placebo regression shows that this effect is not found with other kinds of hate crimes. Two potential explanations for this finding are explored: firstly, that reporting of anti-LGBT+ hate crimes in a state becomes more reliable after that state’s legalization of same-sex marriage or, alternatively, that the number of hate crimes committed against LGBT+ individuals rises.Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Departmental Honors.Discipline: Economics
Investigating Individual Differences in Autism Spectrum Disorder Through Genetic and Functional Connectivity Variability
Get PDFThesis advisor: Stefano AnzellottiAutism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) displays uniquely in every individual, creating disparities in symptom severity, genetics, and functional connectivity. Examining the relationship between genetic and functional connectivity variability could help to better understand individual differences in ASD. From this, improved diagnosis, treatment, and understanding of ASD can be developed. To resolve individual differences in symptom severity and presentation, I generated matrices of subject functional connectivity data and compared this to gene expression maps. Multivariate regression analysis was performed on the data to anticipate ASD symptoms from these correlation matrices and to establish which genes have the largest impact on these predictions. The ANOVAs ran on the data were not significant, but there were several genes implicated in specific aspects of ASD. STX1A, MVP, CDKL5, and RABEP2 were the only genes correlated across more than one subtype of ASD. These results pave the way for future research to investigate the roles of these genes in a larger size of ASD subjects.Thesis (BS) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Departmental Honors.Discipline: Psychology and Neuroscience